Ellen Pompeo thinks diverse representation has come a long way but that it can always be better.- She said that many white people still think if they've "checked a box," the work is over.
Ellen Pompeo thinks that diversity on "
The series creator Shonda Rhimes recently reflected on the show's legacy in an interview with Variety, saying that the medical drama's groundbreaking diverse casting made her "embarrassed for television" because that step should have been taken sooner.
When asked about Rhimes' comments during an interview promoting her company, Betr Remedies, Pompeo told Insider that making Hollywood a more equitable space is "a huge part" of her job "every single day" and that nonmarginalized people in the industry need to think beyond simply checking boxes for on-screen diversity.
"I still find that a lot of white people still feel like they've checked a box and they're good," Pompeo said.
"I can only speak for our show, obviously. I don't work on anybody else's show, but I would say that I am still shocked at where we are," she continued. "And I think that it's a constant. We don't get somewhere and then we're there and then the work is done."
'Grey's Anatomy' has made an effort to represent more marginalized groups in the years since it premiered in 2005
"Grey's Anatomy" broke ground by changing "the faces you see on television," as Rhimes put it to Variety, back in 2005. That diversity has come further in the nearly two decades since.
"I think 'Grey's Anatomy' today looks a lot different than it did in the beginning," Pompeo told Insider.
The show's first LGBTQ+ character, Dr. Callie Torres (Sara Ramirez), was introduced on season two in 2006, though she doesn't come out as bisexual until a few seasons later. Over a decade later, in 2018, "Grey's" introduced its "first gay male surgeon," Dr. Nico Kim (Alex Landi).
As far as representing other marginalized groups, like people with disabilities, Dr. Virginia Dixon, played by the neurotypical actor Mary McDonnell, was the first doctor with autism and appeared in three episodes. The portrayal has been criticized by people with autism for many years.
Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital welcomed its first deaf doctor in 2018 for several episodes, but the show has portrayed most visibly physically disabled characters as patients, not doctors or hospital staff, to date.
Pompeo wants to see more diversity behind the camera too
The "Grey's Anatomy" lead hopes to see more diversity behind the scenes, in the rooms where the stories are crafted.
"It's not enough to just have a Black character on a show or an Asian character on a show or a nonbinary character on the show," Pompeo told Insider. "You then have to back that up and have representation in the writers room to write for that character."
"You can have 10 nonbinary characters on a show. If there isn't a nonbinary writer to write for those characters to speak to what that really is like, you're only doing a little bit of the work. You're not doing all of the work," she continued. "It's my understanding that people not only want to be seen; they want to be written for by people who know their experience, who can speak for their experience."
"Grey's Anatomy" introduced the series' first nonbinary character, Dr. Kai Bartley (played by E.R. Fightmaster) earlier in 2021, during season 18. It's unclear whether any of the writers on the series who are writing for Bartley identify as nonbinary.
"It's work that has to constantly be tended to," Pompeo said. "It's like a garden."